Voice mail systems have generally remained in the same audio-only form for over the last twenty years. A landline telephone may illuminate a light or a mobile telephone may illuminate a symbol indicating a voice mail has been left for the telephone, however, the number of messages is unknown. Further, the senders of these messages are unknown until each voice message is retrieved individually.
Further, when listening to voice mail, the messages are presented in only a single manner, first-in-first-out. Thus, if a more important message is received most recently, all preceding messages must first be listened to even if they are not deemed important.